Software Engineering Task Author

OpenTrain AI; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 96,000 - 165,000; Part time

Job summary

OpenTrain AI is seeking a Software Engineering Task Author to design authentic engineering challenges based on real software work. You will craft prompts involving integration failures, log-based debugging, source-code investigation, and configuration fixes, then solve each task to verify scoring rubrics.

This is a fully remote, flexible, task-based contract role for working software engineers. The listing is marked entry level, while the work requires hands-on, industry-level engineering

Qualifications

• This role requires hands-on software engineering experience debugging and fixing real systems.
• Fluency with Git, version control workflows, and code review practices.
• Strong debugging skills: reading logs, observability tools, and tracing failures.
• Experience with infrastructure, integrations, APIs, and CI/CD configuration.
• Ability to write and verify a code fix in live or simulated environments.
• Ability to define precise, checkable correctness criteria for engineering outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Author engineering prompts covering integration failures, log-based debugging, bug traces through source-code, and configuration fixes
• Write scoring rubrics defining exactly what a correct diagnosis or fix looks like, including live-environment validation
• Set up realistic codebases, logs, alerts, and system states for each task
• Solve every task yourself, write the actual fix, and confirm that it works
• Adjust code complexity, log volume, failure modes, or ambiguity to calibrate task difficulty
• Review and correct AI-drafted task prompts or rubrics when provided

Skills

Software engineering

Debugging

Code review

Git workflows

Observability

CI/CD

Problem solving

Tools

Git

Datadog

Grafana

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

About OpenTrain

OpenTrain AI is the hiring and contracting organization for this role. OpenTrain is the #1 platform for finding and building careers in AI training and data labeling, helping contributors discover projects, build a professional profile, and apply in minutes.

Creating an OpenTrain account is free, giving you a practical way to grow a career working on the human side of modern AI systems.

About AI Training Work

AI training is the human work behind today's artificial intelligence. Engineers, writers, reviewers, and other specialists create examples, test model outputs, and define what high-quality performance looks like so AI systems can become more capable and reliable.

In this role, your software engineering expertise will help train and evaluate advanced AI agents on realistic enterprise development and debugging scenarios.

The Role

OpenTrain is seeking a Software Engineering Task Author to design authentic engineering challenges based on real software work. You will create prompts involving integration failures, log-based debugging, source-code investigation, and configuration or integration fixes, then solve each task yourself to confirm that its scoring rubric is accurate.

This is a fully remote, flexible, task-based contract role for working software engineers. The listing is marked entry level, while the work itself requires hands‑on, industry‑level engineering experience.

• Pay: $70-$120 per hour
• Schedule: 20+ hours per week
• Engagement: Part-time contractor
• Location: United States
• Language: English

What You'll Do

You will build complete, credible tasks that place an AI agent in a plausible engineering situation. Each task should have a clear challenge, a realistic environment, and checkable criteria for determining whether the agent reached the right outcome.

• Author engineering prompts covering integration failures, log-based debugging, bug traces through source-code, and configuration or integration fixes
• Write scoring rubrics defining exactly what a correct diagnosis or fix looks like, including live-environment validation
• Set up realistic codebases, logs, alerts, and system states for each task
• Solve every task yourself, write the actual fix, and confirm that it works
• Adjust code complexity, log volume, failure modes, or ambiguity to calibrate task difficulty
• Review and correct AI-drafted task prompts or rubrics when provided

Required Qualifications

This role is intended for software engineers who can independently investigate failures, make code changes, and verify engineering outcomes. You should be comfortable translating practical debugging knowledge into precise tasks and evaluation standards.

• Hands‑on, industry‑level software engineering experience debugging and fixing real systems
• Fluency in Git, version control workflows, and code review practices
• Strong debugging skills, including reading logs, using observability tools, and tracing failures through codebases
• Experience with infrastructure, integrations, APIs, services, and CI/CD configuration
• Ability to write and verify a code fix in a live or simulated environment
• Ability to define precise, checkable correctness criteria for engineering outcomes

Helpful Background

The following experience can help you create more realistic and demanding engineering scenarios, although it is listed as helpful background rather than a required qualification.

• Enterprise SaaS, financial technology, or large‑scale distributed systems
• Monitoring and observability platforms such as Datadog, PagerDuty, or Grafana
• AI tools or developer platforms as an end user

Why Work in AI Training

AI training and data annotation are fast‑growing ways to work in technology. Contributors directly influence how cutting‑edge AI systems behave by creating, reviewing, and evaluating the examples and outcomes used to improve them.

The work is remote and flexible, making it possible to contribute from a computer with an internet connection while building specialized experience at the intersection of software engineering and artificial intelligence.